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With Christmas just around the corner, PRs are working at top speed to make the papers with their ‘quick and dirty’ festive stunts.

And because Christmas is the season of giving, I’m doing the digging to present you with the industry’s top campaigns this month. I’m actually giving you two gifts because I’ve just noticed a perfect pun in that previous sentence, but who’s counting?

The more times you tweet using the campaign hashtag – #tweetattreat – the better the party will be. Now you wouldn’t want to let the dogs down would you?

The relatable one
Of all the retailers, I didn’t expect Harvey Nichols to launch a ‘canned laughter’ campaign (you don’t laugh at it, more smirk and think ‘I should get that for someone’ and then never do because it’s fluff).

The brand’s launched a range of gifts for women to give to their loved ones as a token to simply say ‘I spent the money on myself’. From a Christmas lunch in a tin (which has been done to death) to a sink plug, it’s been cited as ‘original and perfectly timed’ by Golden Goose PR. I say, they haven’t read this blog yet.

So, there you go – the top five Christmas campaigns of 2013 to date. If yours didn’t make the list just tweet me your favourites at @dmhwhite. I may even shuffle the leaderboard around!

Finally! My thunder thighs have a chance to make me rich by transforming me into an advertisers’ dream. That’s right – girls can register their legs to earn money by displaying logos on their thighs.

‘Thighvertising‘ was coined by Absolute Territory PR after the agency identified a quick win opportunity to promote their clients. More than 1,300 women have already signed up – with an average of 10 new registrations every day a – to walk about town with transfers on their legs for eight hours in exchange for cash.

According to Creative Guerrilla Marketing, the only requirements are – apart from being drop dead gorgeous – wearing miniskirts with knee high socks or boots to attract my attention to the branding and posting pictures on their social media networks.

Are you up to the challenge? I think it’s something that could really take off. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not necessarily offering to flash the flesh (it is December after all) but it would get noticed, especially if you saw a few leggy logos each day.

It’s also something that celebrities could embrace to give their sponsors some instant attention – even if it was just a single tweet or instagram.

It’s a great idea but only until the big boys get involved. As soon as Coca-Cola or Cadbury get involved something as unique as this will have peaked. So let’s hope, for now, the the thighs don’t get too carried away.

All brands get to a stage where they have to stop and think of others by running, what we call in the industry, a ‘charidee’ campaign.

One of my favourites this week is the Tower of London’s link up with Children in Need. To celebrate the BBC’s corporate charity – that helps more than 2,600 projects in the UK to provide support to millions of young people – it’s donating up to £7.50 per person from three skating sessions. My guesstimate is that it’ll raise well over £1,500. And, it’s a partnership that’s obviously beneficial to both parties because it’s the second year in a row that they’ve done this.

It’s topped my list for three reasons:

a) – This is pounds, not pence, being donated which makes a difference to charity and the mediab) – The Tower of London Ice Rink gets to launch its skating season with a bang with some TV coverage that’ll deliver a strong ROIc) – Someone’s going to have to dress in a Pudsey costume and skate at the same time so the chances of that person falling over, making for s classic live TV moment, is high

Celebrities are also backing the charity’s 34th appeal – which is set to raise the bar by topping last year’s £26m fundraising total – in various ways. From Ellie Goulding’s charity single, which’ll donate 20p from each downloaded track, to Sir Paul McCartney designing his own Pudsey Bear, the campaign’s approach is evolving all the time.